Finalizing the geometry of the armrests. This was real tricky to figure out which way to go and I spent a lot of time thinking about how to approach it aesthetically. I didn’t think an arm that was a slab sitting on top of the front leg would agree with the rest of the chair at all. Finally I had to give up on the arm being very wide at the front. The slight bulging upwards of the arm is an optical illusion. They are on a flat plane but curved outwards.

The arms are alder. I stained them quick with some aniline dye I had on hand to fool my eye. They came out looking amazingly very similar to the walnut… though absent the purple and other highlights that make real walnut so interesting.

Sure looks comfortable. I can’t really see or determine the contour of the back slats, biu they appear curved properly to support the lumbar. As our family is short of stature we perfer shallow seats a bit lower than most production chairs. That appears GREAT! Did you hand form the seat with the use of an adz? Thanks for sharing.

Loren, the design seems perfect. I have one quibble/question. You have exposed joinery on the arm and none elsewhere, is there a concern that the eye will be drawn to the joint rather than the chair? Can’t wait to see the completed product.

-- "Aged flatus, I heard that some one has already blown out your mortise." THE Surgeon ……………………………………. Kevin

I was going to use blind tenon on the arm but then I was looking at short grain on the front… I even made a sample arm with a through tenon as I considered using wedged though tenonsas a detail. I like the way a broad end on the arm feels undermy fingers but I could not figure out a straightforward wayto have that on this chair without introducing a level ofwhat I’ll call dissonance to the design.

I’ve thought about the exposed joint. Since the arm is rightout parallel with the front leg, extending it out further wouldbe sort of a sin against space. It can be done and certainlyhas been, but if you look you’ll see that often the front legs are set back on the sides, using a slab seat, so the extended arm ends aren’t protruding beyond the front ofthe seat.

To my thinking at this time the exposed saddle joint isthe most honest way to deal with it. I may be wrong – time will tell and I’m sure I will build variants in the futurethat approach the arm differently.

The seat is a slip-seat dropped into a rabbet. What yousee here is a water-stained piece of 1/4” hardboardsalvaged from the trash. I haven’t yet dealt withmaking the slip seat proper from foam and 6mm veneer-core plywood with slots cut in it for flexibility.

The arms are sliver-moon shaped, then carved out on theinside top and and the outside bottom so they appearthinner at some angles. There’s an aspect to fairing the curves where I’m looking at the curves from everycommon angle and trying to carve away any bumpsor awkwardness.

This isn’t a very good picture. Look at Hans Wegner chairarms to get an idea of the kind of shaping I’m doing here.